Joe Rogan reiterates belief that Alexander Volkanovski "won the first fight" against Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 

Joe Rogan wasn't happy with Islam Makhachev being awarded the victory over Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284. According to Rogan, Volkanovski clearly came out on top in their first encounter.

Nearly everyone who watched UFC 284 was surprised by the thrilling five-round fight between the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the promotion.

Makhachev defeated Volkanovski in his first title defense. The fight was closely contested from start to end. 'The Great' demonstrated his ability to compete with Makhachev's grappling prowess, while the reigning lightweight champion performed extremely well against Volkanovski's strong striking.

Judge Derek Cleary scored the bout 49-46 in favor of Dagestani, although two judges scored it 48-47 in Makhachev's favor. Many have taken issue with Cleary's decision, claiming that Volkanovski should have had his hand raised.

Among them was Rogan, who believed that Volkanovski had done enough to win on the scorecards. In a recent episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, the UFC commentator spoke to Craig Jones about Volkanovski's first clash with Makhachev. He said:

''When Volkanovski fought [Islam] the first time and he was perfectly prepared, it was an amazing fight. I thought he won. I thought it was very close. I thought he won. I think round two was the difference. I could see round two going either way, but I gave it to Volk.''

Rogan added:

''When they announced it, the rematch, a part of me was like ooh that's great fight but the other part of me was like this is in my opinion, this is the fight for No. 1 pound for pound. I believe Volk won the first fight.''

Check out Joe Rogan's comments below:

In his last octagon outing at UFC 298, Volkanovski lost to Ilia Topuria via second-round knockout, losing his featherweight title in the process. He is expected to return later this year.

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Joe Rogan outlines where everything went wrong for Alexander Volkanovski

With just 11 days' notice, Alexander Volkanovski agreed to face Islam Makhachev again at UFC 294 after the latter's original opponent, Charles Oliveira, was forced out of the fight with a horrific eyebrow injury.

That didn't go well with Volkanovski, as he got knocked out in the opening round by Makhachev. Things became worse for the 35-year-old at UFC 298 when he lost his featherweight title to Ilia Topuria after being knocked out in the second round.

In the aforementioned interview, Joe Rogan discussed the reason behind Volkanovski's decline.

''Then he loses the fight to Islam, he gets caught with that head kick, and then he gets knocked out by Topuria, now he's not even in the conversation anymore. So this is a short amount of time and then everything kind of falls apart. And I think it wouldn't have fallen apart if not for the rematch [with Islam]."